A conventional fuel injection valve, described, for example, in German Patent Application No. DE 101 08 945 A1, has a sleeve-shaped nozzle body that is closed off by a valve seat body having a spray opening surrounded by a valve seat. In the nozzle body, the spray opening is preceded by a valve chamber that is in communication with a fuel inflow. Penetrating into the nozzle body is a valve needle that controls the spray opening and carries a closure head forming a sealing fit with the valve seat. The valve needle is acted upon, at the needle end facing away from the closure head, by a valve closing spring that presses the closure head onto the valve seat so that the spray opening is closed off. Uncovering of the spray opening is brought about by an electromagnet that drives the valve needle, against the force of the valve closing spring, to perform a stroke that lifts the closure head off the valve seat. A current flow through the electromagnet causes a magnetic flux that proceeds via an outer pole, an inner pole, an armature sitting axially displaceably on the valve needle, and a working air gap enclosed between the armature and inner pole, and generates in the working air gap a magnetic force that drives the armature to perform a linear stroke motion toward the inner pole. Disposed fixedly on the valve needle is an entraining element that is guided axially displaceably in the interior of the hollow-cylindrical inner pole and has a first armature stop for the armature. A second armature stop is fastened on the valve needle on the side of the armature facing away from the entraining element, against which stop the armature is pressed by a pre-stroke spring braced between the armature and entraining element. Upon current flow through the electromagnet the armature firstly imparts a take-up travel or pre-stroke to the valve needle until it comes to a stop against the first armature stop on the entraining element, thereby imparts a mechanical momentum to the valve needle, and entrains the valve needle via the entraining element, with the result that the closure head begins to lift off from the valve seat. At the end of the complete armature stroke, the armature comes to a stop against the pole surface of the inner pole and the spray opening is completely uncovered, so that the fuel under pressure in the valve chamber is sprayed through the spray opening in a metered quantity. When current flow through the electromagnet ceases, the valve closing spring presses the closure head, via the valve needle, onto the valve seat, and the pre-stroke spring presses the armature against the second armature stop.